Stimulation of developing infants and toddlers is considered to be quite important to a child's intellectual, physical, and emotional development. As a result, it is desirable to provide means by which an infant or toddler may be stimulated throughout daily life. For example, significant visual stimulation of infants has been considered helpful in aiding infants to develop vision faster than infants that are not exposed to large amounts of visual stimulation. Likewise, as a child develops over time, ongoing visual and other stimulation beyond the infancy stage through exposure to age-appropriate stimulation devices can have continuing benefits, such as helping the two or more month old start to distinguish colors and develop focus, helping the five or more month old develop concentration and enhance curiosity, keeping the older toddler entertained while travelling, as well as numerous other benefits.
A variety of child simulation devices have previously been provided, such as mobiles, flash cards, books, and the like, which may be targeted for a child of a specific age. For instance, very young infants' eyes are less able to distinguish fine pattern distinctions, such that large black and white patterns provided on such devices may be best to stimulate the early infant's vision. More developed infants and toddlers can more easily distinguish and comprehend color patterns and ultimately characters, common shapes, and other printed matter, such that more detailed visual stimuli are more appropriate at these more advanced stages of development. Thus, while such devices may have varied visual content that may be stimulating to children of various ages and at various stages of development, their physical configurations vary tremendously, and not all such physical configurations will be appropriate for children at all stages of development. Thus, it would be desirable to provide such a stimulating arrangement in a configuration capable of both being usable with a variety of child equipment (e.g., capable of use with child carriers of various forms), and of being modified to vary the visual stimulation presented to the child so as to adapt the visual stimulation to the child's stages of development over time.
For instance, when using a child carrier of any form, such as a car seat, a carriage or stroller, a child swing, a crib, a playpen, or other child carrying device, it would be beneficial to provide a device having a physical configuration capable of application to the various types of child carriers that a parent might wish to use, and that was likewise capable of modification with minimal effort to adapt the particular stimulating device to the child's current stage of development.
Likewise, for many such child carriers, a parent may wish to shade at least a portion of the compartment holding the child so as to protect the child from wind, rain, and excessive sunlight. However, the configurations of prior known shade hoods on strollers, car seats, and other child carriers would typically make integration of an easily replaceable stimulating device quite difficult, and likewise would typically do nothing itself to aid in stimulating the child in such carrier. Thus, so as to maximize the opportunity to stimulate the child in the child carrier while maintaining the ability to easily adapt a stimulating device to the child's current stage of development, it would be further advantageous to provide a stimulating device that integrates a shade hood, and particularly which shade hood itself further provides additional stimulation to the child.